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I recently had the opportunity to teach two workshops at an event for girls interested in science hosted at Robert Morris University. As usual I gave the kids minimal instruction and then allowed them a large amount of time to explore the materials and components. They were given the chance to make something — anything — out of recycled materials, motors and batteries. This group of girls really took this

I was asked by a fellow teacher to create something that facilitates the exploration of gears. Gears can be tricky for children to understand, so I thought it was a great challenge! After an extremely informal brainstorming session with Christian, I came up with this activity. I have to thank Christian for passing by during the day and suggesting that I use tacks and foam. The gears were donated by someone, the fo

Who are inventors? Anyone can be an inventor… Most people probably picture an inventor as someone in a laboratory working with a bunch of complex machines. When I think of inventors, I picture anyone willing to try out something new. Kids are great at inventing things. Case in point: Usman and his “Spinny Thing”. Usman spent a lot of time in the MAKESHOP. He really enjoyed experimenting with our cir

I have had whole families work on projects in the MAKESHOP. This was the first instance where I witnessed three generations create three separate projects at once. We were celebrating “May the Fourth Be With You” day in the MakeShop. Being the National STAR WARS day, we decided to let visitors make “ShopDroids.” A very eager family came in and got right to work creating things. To my surprise,

Over the past several weeks, students from the Museum’s YouthALIVE after school program worked on a very interesting design challenge. The kids were tasked with creating a “survival kit” for someone stranded on a deserted island. They were afforded time in the MakeShop to design and create the objects for their kits. The students worked in teams and were given a set number of objects to create.